Game Review: Heavy Rain – Remastered

Jason…JASON!

With its release in 2010, Quantic Dream almost nailed a close representation of a ‘movie-like experience’ with Heavy Rain. Now in 2016 – an era of console gaming filled with a surfeit of re-mastered games from the previous generation – we’re here again, albeit with better 1080p graphics at 30fps.

For those who are unfamiliar with the premise of the game, a serial killer of children is at large. He’s called ‘The Origami Killer’ and sequesters children in areas to drown them while challenging their seemingly deadbeat fathers to save them. Evil bastard. We follow four main protagonists who lead us on a merry dance of choices and stilted dialogue. Our heroesare varied and the mopey and often idiotic Ethan Mars, who’s story is a pastiche of all the Sawmovies in one, is our lead character. Next we have the weather worn PI Scott Shelby, hot on the trail of the killer, with a charm and warmth no one else seems to have in the cast. FBI agent Norman Jayden (the way his name is said just grates on my nerves) and hot-shot insomniac journalist Madison Paige round out our heroes. All different personalities, all as annoying as each other.

The tension and feeling of unease still permeates throughout the game with its firm focus on quick time events (QTEs) and the ‘illusion of choice’. Having played the original back when it was released, it felt good to see that this didn’t age as badly as initially thought. What has aged though, is the horrendous voice acting. It’s as if the actors had their voices attached to modulators and then passed through a blender. If these accents are supposed to be American, then I’m not Irish. Nails, meet chalkboard.

On a pure technical level, Heavy Rain is a great game to look at. It was an impressive beast when it was on the PS3 and now on the PS4, it’s even more so. Improved textures and lighting make for a visual treat when traversing some of the game locales. It’s unfortunate that it’s so greatly flawed in the execution of the story, especially as the focus is initially on the mundane and ordinary. ‘Shake controller to brush teeth’ does not make for an exciting game.

Your name is NORMAN, not NAHMAN…

Character movements felt clunky and awkward as they were focused on the ‘R2’ button as an accelerator while guiding your character with the left stick. The camera angles are just as hard to navigate and when combined with the tank-like controls for movement, which makes for a frustrating experience when time is of the essence to make snap-decisions. The illusion of choice is very important here; every QTE and action beat is handled well and the tension builds from where you make snap judgements at a quick fire pace. However, the term ‘interactive movie’ gets thrown out here for what David Cage is trying to accomplish. For example, even if you put down your controller during these QTEs and just move your characters from A-B, the story will still progress until you have to move the character again or until they’ve met a grisly end.

Re-releasing Heavy Rain now achieves many things that are both good and bad. On one hand, it showcases the technical accomplishments that Cage and his team hit upon for their PS3 outing in a higher resolution casing. On the other hand, showing the leaps that have been made in games since its release for both storytelling and voice acting, the dichotomy between the technical accomplishments and the story only helps to highlight the potential that the game has as a medium of art but fails in its execution. It’s sad, but true.

Heavy Rain is a good game, with exciting action scenes played through tense QTEs that can make the calmest person sweat profusely. However it truly fails to hit the highs it could have with some very lackadaisical storytelling. The identity of the killer is so frustrating to discover (as it goes completely against the supposed motivations of the character), while the voice acting is straight up unintentionally laughable that credibility for the story also suffers.

If you have never played any of Quantic Dream’s outings previously, this is the version to check out and play, while existing fans of the game will enjoy seeing the upgrade of fidelity on their big HD TVs.

Whatever you do… choose the fiery poker

PSA – If you buy the digital version of Heavy Rain, once it is downloaded, shut your PS4 down altogether, and reboot as the digital version will have frame-rate issues unless the PS4 is not re-booted.

Hey! I'm Tom, lover of comics, video games and all things geeky or nerdy! I came to Geek Ireland in 2014 professing a love for Batman & Solid Snake. I enjoy the exchange of ideas and opinions of a verbal nature while arguing with my co-hosts on Press G to Start. I also like hugs...